Agnelli Bets on Metals After Leading Vale Boom: Corporate Brazil

Roger Agnelli, who oversaw a 10-fold surge in shares as head of Vale SA (VALE5), is setting up his own commodities empire on a bet metal and food prices will resume a rally.

Agnelli, 53, this year founded a firm to invest in commodities ventures from a biodiesel plant to make fuel for jets in Brazil to a deep-water port project in Africa. In July, he teamed up with billionaire Andre Esteves’s Banco BTG Pactual SA to create B&A Mineracao SA, which has bought a controlling stake in Cuprum Resources Corp., a closely held company with copper assets in Chile, Agnelli said. He declined to disclose financial terms of the deal.